Are You Flourishing? (1)

Are You Flourishing? (1)

“It is [God] who has made us, and not we ourselves.” Ps 100:3 NAS

Some of us worry that if we seek to grow spiritually, we will have to become someone we’re not. That’s not how God works. He doesn’t discard your raw material—He redirects it. John Ortberg tells the story of his strong-willed four-year-old Shauna, who was determined to take her tricycle beyond the boundaries her mother had set for her. Her mom said, “Shauna, there’s the tree…and there’s the driveway…you can ride on the sidewalk between [them] but you can’t go past that. If you do you’ll get a spanking. I have to be inside; I’ve got stuff to do. But I’m going to be watching you. Don’t go past either one of those boundaries or you’re going to get a spanking.” Defiantly Shauna backed up to her mom, pointed to her spanking zone, and said, “Well, you might as well spank me now, because I’ve got places to go.” It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that Shauna grew up with formidable leadership capacities and an indomitable drive! And the chances are she will always have them. God doesn’t create something, then throw it away. He creates it, and if there’s a problem He redeems and redirects it. The Bible says, “It is [God] who has made us, and not we ourselves.” When you “flourish,” you become more you, more like the person God had in mind when He thought you up. Yes, you’ll change in the process. You’ll become a “new creation” (2Co 5:17 NKJV). But “new” doesn’t mean completely different; it’s more like a piece of furniture that gets restored to its intended beauty.

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